Hikaru Nakamura

Currently rated number two in the world and one of two rated higher than the magic 2800 barrier, Hikaru Nakamura has won the U.S. Championship five times. He was a rock for the U.S. national team for over a decade, leading it to a gold medal in the 2016 Chess Olympiad, a silver medal in the 2018 Chess Olympiad and bronze medals in the 2006 and 2008 Chess Olympiads. He won team silver and individual gold in the 2009 World Team Championship.

Hikaru’s peak rating of 2819 makes him equal ninth on the all-time list, but he has enjoyed even greater success at faster time controls. FIDE started holding official world blitz and rapid champions in 2012 and Hikaru has finished second twice in the World Blitz Championship (2019 and 2022) and third on two occasions (2014 and 2018). He was the bronze medalist in the 2018 and 2019 World Rapid Championship. As of September 1, 2025, he is the second rated blitz player in the world and ninth on the rapid list.

All this is mind boggling when you consider that chess playing is not the first thing on Hikaru’s mind these days. That, of course, would be streaming. During the pandemic what was a part-time hobby became a full-time job and in the process, Hikaru became the most watched chess figure in the world with hundreds of thousands of subscribers on Twitch and millions of followers on YouTube. He has done all this and yet is only 7 points from his all-time rating peak at a time when there is definite rating deflation.